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New Year's Eve
31 December
 I've
just come across a lovely idea for frazzled parents on New Year's
Eve, it's a Pyjama Party and sleepover which instantly solves the
problem of guests not being able to drink and drive. The
details are to be found at: http://home.ivillage.com/holiday/0,,8jmf72x5-2,00.html
The author of this article is not really thinking of
including kids, but if you got together with just a few families you
get on well with and adapted it a bit, it could be great fun! Start
an annual family tradition by printing out the page at this
Kids Fun File link, for each child:
2008: My Year
Ask your children to answer each of the 8 questions
to the best of their ability. (They can write, draw or simply
tell you the answers.) I'm sure there will be some surprises,
you may discover things about your children you didn't know.
To make future New Year's Eves truly special, keep all the little
pages safely in a box and bring them out each year as reminders of
past events and just how much has changed! On
New Year's Eve an
interesting activity for kids would be to give each of them a
smallish candle and ask them to push a pin through it.
Apparently the phrase "you could hear a pin drop"
comes from the tradition of pushing a pin through a candle, which
when burned down, dropped out at midnight. See whose pin drops
out closest to the time (and see if you can hear it) - this might be
one way of getting a quiet moment! There
were some great ideas in an American magazine called "Family
Fun". These included getting the kids to make big
cardboard placards with each of the numbers 1-10 on them to hold up
one after the other at the countdown until midnight.
Just before the countdown, play Hunt the Clock (if the
clock has a nice loud tick it adds a whole new dimension to
the game). You can make your own New Year's Balloons by
filling balloons with homemade confetti (colored paper cut out
with a hole punch) before blowing them up and tying them.
These can then be burst at midnight for a colourful explosion of
confetti. The last idea was a very clever one. Encourage
the kids to write a New Year's resolution on a piece of
paper, then put each of these into the appropriate Christmas
stocking before storing them. This way they will not be seen
again until almost 12 months have gone by, plus they will be
something else to enjoy in the run up to Christmas. There
is a beautifully illustrated page of Victorian Parlour games
to be found at the Museum of Childhood's website. One that
mums and dads might remember is "My uncle doesn't like
peas", although you may have played it under a different name.
www.vam.ac.uk/moc/childrens_lives/parlour_games Play
End of the Year Charades by compiling a list of important
events, songs, movies or books from 2008 and getting your guests to
act them out. Most of the newspapers have already started
printing such lists, so you shouldn't be short of ideas. When
the time comes to all link hands and sing "Auld Lang Syne"
be prepared by printing off the lyrics from this website: http://www.rampantscotland.com/songs/blsongs_syne.htm
There is even an MP3 version of the song sung by
Kenneth McKellar - now there's a blast from the past!
After all the midnight celebrations,
make sure you have someone tall, dark and handsome to "First
Foot" your house (by going out and coming in again!)
According to Scottish Hogmanay tradition, your first visitor of the
year will determine how lucky you will be. The most luck is
brought by a tall, dark handsome man bringing a gift of either a
loaf of bread or a lump of coal. (That way you can be sure of
being warm and well fed throughout the New Year).
Christmas
25 December
Places to play
Visit
Santa's Secret Village where you can write to Santa, listen to
stories read by an elf - then print out and colour them in, join in
with the karaoke, visit Mrs Claus' kitchen and look in her Christmas
recipe book, visit the elves' toy store and the reindeer barn or even create a
personalised story.
A truly
magical website. http://www.northpole.com/
Visit the
Santa Tracker website for a
Countdown to Christmas and to track Santa's progress on Christmas
Eve:
http://www.northpole.com/NoradSanta.asp
Watch
a penguin write your name or message in the snow - it's great
fun!
http://www.star28.net/snow.html
CBeebies have a fun Pantomime Creator for you to try (simply
click and stick on the characters and watch the panto!):
www.bbc.co.uk/cbeebies/fun/pantomime.shtml
Take
a digital photo of your child's face and this site will turn it into
an animated elf.
Alternatively you can select a random
face instead. You can then send it to a friend, for whom
the elf will do a little dance! http://www.elfyourself.com/
Things to do
For small children who would
like to learn the Nativity story, you'll find a simple version with
illustrations at: http://www.topmarks.co.uk/christianity/nativity/index.htm
Print off the Good Deeds
Calendar, so that you can show Santa how well-behaved you've
been this month!
http://www.northpole.com/Academy/GoodDeeds/December.pdf I've
found three lovely games for family get-togethers over
Christmas and everything you need can be found on this site:
http://wondertime.go.com/create-and-play/article/great-family-games.html Try
these Christmas activities on printable sheets:
http://funschool.kaboose.com/ac_christmas/christmas_maze.pdf
http://funschool.kaboose.com/ac_christmas/christmas_find_the_differences.pdf
http://funschool.kaboose.com/ac_christmas/christmas_word_search.pdf You
can get about 100 Christmas song lyrics at Kididdles.com:
www.kididdles.com/lyrics/christmas.html Christmas
crafts and printables
CBeebies also have a very easy Nativity scene to print out and
make from an old shoe box.
The family of baby Jesus can be made into finger puppets, so
that you can have your own Nativity show at home, too:
www.bbc.co.uk/cbeebies/make/nativity.shtml There
is some good quality free Christmas clipart for cards,
decorations or tags, available at:
http://parenting.leehansen.com/downloads/clipart/christmas/index.htm
 On
the same site there is a printable Christmas angel border
(either horizontal or vertical) which could be printed onto all
sorts of decorations, stationery or even home-made Christmas
wrapping paper.
http://parenting.leehansen.com/downloads/clipart/christmas/pages/angels-border.htm
 Create
a banner of gingerbread men:
http://www.enchantedlearning.com/crafts/christmas/gingerbreadstring/
 There
is a cute Santas banner to print out at Canon printers
Creative Park:
http://cp.c-ij.com/en/contents/3159/03505/index.html The
NatureDetectives website has a host of wonderful things including
free printable templates for snowflakes and for snowmen chains:
http://www.naturedetectives.org.uk/seasons/winter There
are 24 free printable Christmas gift tags at
allthingschristmas.com:
www.allthingschristmas.com/northpole/npprintables/tags01.html
www.allthingschristmas.com/northpole/npprintables/tags02.html Plus
15 free printable Christmas colouring pages which would make
lovely decorations once they're colored in:
www.allthingschristmas.com/northpole/color/coloring.html Make
gorgeous origami decorations using the templates or by
watching the animated instructions on:
origami-club.com 
http://origami-club.com/en/
Don't
forget you could also print out more of the cute gift tags we
mentioned below in the
Advent Calendar section (details and link below.)
 Make
a cheery reindeer out of your own hand and footprints:
http://www.enchantedlearning.com/crafts/christmas/handfoot/ There
are lots of different printable snowmen to cut out and colour
at Makingfriends.com.
The parts are interchangeable, so the possibilities are endless!
www.makingfriends.com/winter/printable_snowman_craft.htm Make
your own snowflake decoration by printing this:
http://www.kaboose.com/parties/pdf/xmas_snowflake2.pdf
First Sunday of
Advent
Sunday 30 November
Advent is the period between 30 November and
Christmas Eve.
This is when families prepare for Christmas Day, when they can
celebrate the birth of baby Jesus.
Now is the time to start writing Christmas cards, decorating the
house, singing carols, buying and wrapping presents.
Advent wreath
A wreath is the traditional symbol for
Advent.
The circular shape represents God who has no beginning or end.
A wreath is green, which symbolises the new life that we are looking
forward to in the Springtime. Not many plants are green in the
Winter, so the green wreath makes a house look cheerful.
Some people hang their wreath on the front door to welcome their
guests.
Others lay the wreath flat and place four candles around
it.
Christians light the candles one at a time on each of the four
Sundays before Christmas.
The first candle is for Hope, the second for Peace, the third for
Love and the fourth for Joy.
These are all things we like to think about at Christmas
time.
On Christmas Day a final special candle can be lit and placed in the
centre of the wreath to celebrate Jesus' birthday and that he is the
light of the world.
If you don't have a real holly or fir wreath, you
can make your own wreath out of handprints.
Simply take a paper plate and draw around a saucer placed in the
middle.
Cut out the circle and you'll have a wreath shape.
Then find some green paper and draw around your hand as many times
as you can.
Cut out all the little hand shapes and glue them all around the
paper plate ring (arrange them at different angles so that they
stick out nicely just like a real wreath.)
You can then decorate your wreath in any way you like. You
could cut out little circles of coloured paper to stick onto it, or
add bits of tinsel or glitter.
Last of all you can add a lovely red ribbon tied in a bow, so that
it looks something like this:
If mum looks after your wreath, and brings it out
every year, one day you'll be surprised by how tiny your hands were
when you made it! Make your own
Advent Calendar There is a very simple
Advent Calendar to print out and make at thetoymaker.com.
Just print off these two pages:
http://www.thetoymaker.com/Holidays/Christmas/advent1.pdf
http://www.thetoymaker.com/Holidays/Christmas/advent2.pdf
Then all you need to do is cut out the three sides of each door
and glue the two pieces of paper together around the outside
only. (So that when you open the doors the little pictures
will be visible.) ActivityVillage.co.uk have
cute little Christmas Gift Tags to print out.
As there are 24 in a similar style, you could use these for a homemade
advent calendar.
Start by printing off the pages of pictures here: www.activityvillage.co.uk/Christmas_memory_game_3.pdf
www.activityvillage.co.uk/Christmas_memory_game_2.pdf Now
cut out each of the circles and keep them in a box. Then get a
big piece of green card (or coloured-in white card) and draw the
basic outline of a Christmas tree onto it.
Something like this:  Cut
out your tree and pin it to the wall. Then every morning the
children can attach one of the circles to the tree as if it were a
bauble. It should look very festive. If you like, you
could also cut and colour a big star shape that could be stuck at
the top of the tree on Christmas Day. If you're
feeling very ambitious and have a day free, you can build your
own Advent village from the instructions and printables at: www.santaspostbag.co.uk/advent-town-advent-calendar
 Copyright
www.santaspostbag.co.uk It's quite
straightforward because all the templates can be printed from the
website straight onto card for cutting and glueing. There is a
house for each day of Advent up to the 24th, which is the village
church. Once you have made all the buildings, a little treat
can be hidden inside, to be found on the appropriate day. It
could be a nice project for the whole of December, as you could
build up the village as the month progresses - you would only need
to be a few houses ahead at a time. There is also a
truly inspired Advent Reward Chart at www.activityvillage.co.uk
 Children can
write down the good deeds they do each day and will have proof of
their goodness to leave out for Santa on Christmas Eve. You
never know, the habit of trying to do something good each day may
even last into the New Year! There is an alternative
chart, for those who need prompting about what to do, here:
www.northpole.com/Academy/GoodDeeds
Stir Up Sunday
23 November
This is the day when families traditionally gather
together to prepare the Christmas pudding, with each member of the
family taking a turn with the stirring. (Christmas puddings
were probably introduced to Britain from Germany by Queen Victoria's
husband, Prince Albert.) The pudding is made a long way in
advance because it takes a few weeks for all the dried fruit to
become nice and moist inside and for all the flavours to mingle.
On their way home from church, children used to chant :
Stir up, we beseech thee,
The pudding in the pot,
And when we get home,
We'll eat the lot! There are lots of rituals to
be observed when making a Christmas pudding:
The pudding should have 13 ingredients to represent Jesus and each
of his disciples.
Everyone in the family should stir the pudding and make a wish while
they stir.
You should always stir from East to West, which was the direction
the Three Kings took on their journey to bring gifts to baby Jesus.
A (very clean) lucky coin can be mixed into the pudding.
Whoever finds it on Christmas Day will have a wealthy and
happy future. In the past, people used to use a sixpence but a
10p piece will do - as long as all your guests are warned to look
out for it!
You can also add a ring, whose finder will be getting married soon,
and a thimble which is meant to predict a lucky life for those who
find it.
(To avoid anyone choking on these, they can be wrapped in
greaseproof paper before being added. Children should have
their slice of pudding cut up small for them before they eat it, so
that any trinkets can be found.)
Some recipes tell you to soak the dried fruit overnight, so be
prepared to start on Saturday.
According to Delia Smith, it's not wise to cook or store Christmas
puddings in tin foil, as it makes them taste funny. So wrap
them in greaseproof paper instead. There is a
straightforward Katie Stewart recipe at Easy Living's site:
www.easylivingmagazine.com/Food/Recipes/KatieStewartChristmasPudding/ Delia's
recipe can be found at:
www.deliaonline.com/recipes/traditional-christmas-pudding The
BBC has three different recipes at:
www.bbc.co.uk/food/news_and_events
Thanksgiving
27 November
Traditional Thanksgiving Poem:
"Thanksgiving"
The year has turned its circle,
The seasons come and go.
The harvest is all gathered in
And chilly north winds blow.
Orchards
have shared their treasures,
The fields, their yellow grain.
So open wide the doorway-
Thanksgiving comes again!
What is Thanksgiving?
Thanksgiving is an American national holiday when
families get together to share a big meal and celebrate all the good
things in their lives. It is a time when all the fruits and
vegetables that grew over the summer have been safely gathered
in. Everyone is pleased that they will have plenty to eat over
the long, cold winter months.
In America, it is traditional to eat a meal of roast
turkey with stuffing and cranberry sauce, sweet potatoes and pumpkin
pie for pudding. This is because these were the foods that the
first British settlers in America would have eaten. People
like to remember this because when the settlers came to America they
had to start with very little and so found it really hard to keep
themselves safe and fed. One autumn, when the settlers had
hardly anything to eat, the local native American Indians brought
them lots of their own food and shared it with them. This was
such a kind thing to do, people celebrate it every year.
The First Thanksgiving
There
is a really interesting interactive section on the Scholastic
website that tells you all about
the first American Thanksgiving:
www.scholastic.com/scholastic%5Fthanksgiving/
You can voyage on the ship "Mayflower" from Plymouth,
England to Cape Cod, America along with the original settlers and
experience the exciting sights and sounds of the voyage. Then
find out about daily life on the colony, learn some Red Indian games
and hear all about the original Thanksgiving Feast. Hold
your own Thanksgiving Dinner
Why not have a Thanksgiving Dinner of your own? It doesn't
need to be on the Thursday, you could have it three days later
instead of your usual Sunday lunch. All the recipes you will
need can be found at the links given below. Don't forget to
prepare lots of decorations in advance, with pictures you've
coloured in and place cards for the table. Most importantly,
you need to think about what you are most thankful for this
year. To help with this, print off these Thankful Cards
from FamilyFun:
http://familyfun.go.com/printables/season
and place one on the table for each of your guests.
Ask everyone to fill it in and, at the end of the meal, read them
out to each other. You're bound to feel very happy when
you realise just how lucky you are! Mum
can find a recipe for Classic Roast Turkey from BBC Good Food
here:
www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/
(and get some practise in for Christmas!) Activity
TV has two recipes that are so easy you could help mum make
them.
The printable recipe sheets are here for:
Sweet Potatoes with Marshmallow Topping (yum!)
www.activitytv.com/printables/
and Easy Pumpkin Pie
http://www.activitytv.com/printables
You can even watch videos of how to make these recipes here:
http://www.activitytv.com/search.aspx?term=thanksgiving
Help to decorate
your Thanksgiving table with place cards for all your guests.
You can find a free printable for pumpkin place cards at
Family Fun:
http://familyfun.go.com/printables/season and
the people who make lovely ice cream at Ben & Jerry's also have
a fun cartoon Thanksgiving turkey place card for you to cut
out and colour in:
www.benjerry.com/assets/images/fun_stuff
Thanksgiving
printables and activities. Find out
how to make a turkey out of your own handprints and footprints at
Kaboose:
http://crafts.kaboose.com/hands-and-feet-turkey.html
There is a really cool Thanksgiving Activity Page at
FamilyFun:
http://familyfun.go.com/printables/season/printable/thanksgiving
 There's
also a lovely cartoony Thanksgiving picture to colour in,
again at Family Fun:
http://familyfun.go.com/printables/coloring-pages/
There are more cartoon colouring pages on a Thanksgiving
theme at Lil Fingers:
www.lil-fingers.com/games/coloring/thankgiving
When
you are all relaxing after your big dinner, you can have fun making
up Native American Indian names for all the members of your
family. They should be names relating to nature that suggest
something about how the person looks or what they are
like.
Some ideas are: Star Dancer, Pale Horse, Sitting Bull, Running
Deer. Or, it you want to be silly, how about Running Nose or
Big Chief Sleepy Bear?
"Walk
tall like the trees, live your life as strong as the mountains, be
as soft as the spring breezes, keep the warmth of the sun in your
heart and the Great Spirit will always be with you."
(Wisdom of
the Navajo)
Remembrance Sunday
& Remembrance Day
9 & 11 November
You
have probably seen lots of people selling and wearing red poppies
in the last few weeks. This is because November is the time
when we remember all the soldiers, sailors and airmen who have lost
their lives fighting for our country. November was chosen
because World War I ended at 11am on the 11 November 1918.
Every year since then the British have remembered these brave people
at 11am on the 11 November (Tuesday this year), to make sure they
are never forgotten. Out of respect, everyone stops what they
are doing and stays silent for 2 minutes. So, all across the
country adults at home or in their workplaces and children in their
schools will all be doing exactly the same thing at the same
time.
This
year is the 90th anniversary of the end of the First World
War, so there is going to be a special event in London's
Trafalgar Square on Tuesday. There will be songs and readings
by famous people and, at the end, all the spectators will be asked
to place poppies in the fountains.
Because
the 11 November can be on any day of the week (and so lots of people
might be working), there is also a special day of Remembrance on
Sunday. There is a national ceremony in London at the Cenotaph
(which is a big memorail monument). The Queen places the first
wreath on the steps of the Cenotaph and there is a special
service.
Copyright www.britishlegion.org.uk
Soldiers with bugles (a sort of trumpet) play "The Last
Post". This is a tune which marks the end of a
soldier's day and it represents a final farewell. You can
listen to an mp3 of this by clicking on this weblink: http://www.lastpost.be/
It's
a very sad-sounding tune.
It is also the custom to read the poem by Laurence Binyon called "The
Fallen".
You can find the whole poem at www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk
but you might recognise these famous lines:
"They
shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old:
Age shall not weary them, nor the years contemn.
At the going down of the sun and in the morning
We will remember them."
Many
of the men who died were very young and that makes it even more
sad. However, Henry Allingham who lives in Eastbourne
and is Britain's oldest man (he's 112!) fought in the First
World War. He has become very famous and he believes it is
important we remember our wars and the poeple we lost, so that
no-one will ever want to start another.
Bonfire Night
5 November
The Gunpowder Plot
Bonfire Night is celebrated to remember the day that Guy
Fawkes tried to blow up the King James and his Parliament on
5th November 1605. Guy Fawkes was a Catholic soldier
and, at that time, Catholics were forbidden to pray in their
own churches. They were very angry with the King and so
some plotted to get rid of him, hoping that a new King might
be kinder to them. They rented a cellar underneath the
Houses of Parliament and placed 36 barrels of gunpowder in
it. They were going to blow them up when the King came
to open the Houses of Parliament. Unfortunately for Guy
Fawkes, someone discovered the plan and he was caught in the
cellar, where he was waiting to light the fuse. He was
later executed for treason (which means trying to harm the
King or your country).
King James was very frightened by this plot to kill him, so he
told his people that they should light a bonfire every 5
November, to remember this terrible plot. We still do
this 400 years later and some people even put a dummy called a
"Guy" on top of the bonfire, which is meant to look
like Guy Fawkes.
Copyright Learning & Teaching
Scotland
Remember, remember the fifth of November,
Gunpowder, treason and plot.
I see no reason why gunpowder treason
Should ever be forgot.
Guy Fawkes, guy, 'twas his intent
To blow up king and parliament.
Three score barrels were laid below
To prove old England's overthrow.
By God's mercy he was catch'd
With darkened lantern and burning match.
So holler boys, holler boys, "God save the King!"
And what shall we do with him?
BURN HIM!
There is a printable version of this rhyme
to be found at:
www.activityvillage.co.uk/remember_remember
If that isn't enough, you can download a
whole factsheet about the Gunpowder Plot from the
Houses of Parliament's own website:
www.parliament.uk
Now you know everything about Bonfire Night you can try the
interactive quiz
news.bbc.co.uk/cbbcnews
or you can test your knowledge of the Gunpowder Plot
with a great game:
www.bbc.co.uk/history/british
Games and printables
There are some lovely colourful interactive games
including Virtual Sparkler, an Interactive Poster and a Pets
Game, plus the Fireworks Safety Code at the DTI site:
www.dti.gov.uk/fireworks/games
There are free printable pages of Bonfire Night pictures to
colour here:
www.activityvillage.co.uk
and more Bonfire Night colouring pages here (these are
more cute):
www.underfives.co.uk1
www.underfives.co.uk2
I've found a free printable Firework Writing
Paper at:
www.primarygames.com/print_zone
You can build your own very colourful
Crayola Fireworks Spectacular at:
www.crayola.com/kids/games
You can even create your own musical
fireworks display at:
www.pbs.org/capitolfourth/fireworks
You can print off and talk about this lovely "Bonfire
Night" poem by Irene Yates. You could also draw and
colour some pictures of the things in the poem. www.fireworksafety.co.uk
Just to be on the safe side, you may wish to download a copy
of the Fireworks Safety Code:
www.berr.gov.uk/fireworks
Recipes
If you're celebrating Bonfire Night at
home, don't forget to stock up with sausages, baking
potatoes, soup and marshmallows to toast on sticks - it
wouldn't be a true Bonfire Party without those!
However, if you want to follow the American example
for a camp fire party on Bonfire Night you could try
this recipe for 'Smores. They
get their name from the fact that everyone always wants some
more.
You'll need:
A packet of Digestive biscuits
One large bar of chocolate
A large pack of old fashioned marshmallows (not the new fluffy
kind)
Some kebab sticks
All you do is melt the marshmallows on a
kebab stick in the fire, then sandwich them between 2
Digestive biscuits. If you squeeze a square of chocolate
in there too, it melts and goes a bit squishy as well.
Can't imagine why everyone always wants more!
If you're lucky you might be able to
persuade mum to help you make Bonfire Toffee and Toffee Apples
from the recipes found here:
http://www.fireworks.co.uk/party/recipes.html
You can make easy Chocolate Sparklers
by dipping chocolate finger biscuits into warm water for a
second and then into a dish of and hundreds and
thousands. Anyone could make them!
31 October
Halloween cards and party invitations.
I've put together some images for these which you can use by
clicking below.
It's always difficult to print straight onto
card, so I suggest you print off the page you want,
cut out the
relevant picture and glue it to an A5 card folded in half. You
can then write your own message inside.
Halloween
page 1
Halloween page 2
Halloween page 3
Halloween page 4
Pumpkin Carving
There is a very good tutorial to be found at Halloween
Pumpkins
They have also generously included a number of
free
templates like the one below. 
Copyright
www.halloweenpumpkins.be
Halloween Recipes
As usual the BBC has come up with the best recipes, this
time from their Good Food magazine website. You'll find spooky
spider cakes and that essential pumpkin pie recipe:
www.bbcgoodfood.com There
are also some good recipes, including a very simple Gingerbread
Skeletons & Ghosts one at the baking goods company
Supercook's website: www.supercook.co.uk/find-recipe-ideas/
 The
Pond Water Jelly recipe on the same site is so impressive
it's almost too good for kids!
www.supercook.co.uk/find-recipe-ideas/pond-water-jelly-recipe
Wanda's
Halloween Cookbook doesn't take itself too seriously
and it has some really lovely recipes for
Pumpkin Pie and easy Marshmallow Ghosts.
Copyright Halloweenkitchen.com
Halloween Decorations
Print off the pages from this Familyfun website for
pictures of cats,
pumpkins, ghosts and spiders to stick on walls or windows for
Halloween night.
Familyfun also
h as colourful cartoon type banner to print off and
cut out.
You could alternatively make a spookier banner with pieces of white, orange and black
paper or card.
Print off these templates.
You will then
need to cut out the eyes, nose and mouth of each (plus the outlines
if you can).
Then punch a hole at the top right and left of
your paper and push string through each to hang them in a line.
http://www.thetoymaker.com/Holidays/Halloween/skull1.pdf
http://www.thetoymaker.com/Holidays/Halloween/cat2.pdf
http://www.thetoymaker.com/Holidays/Halloween/pumpkin3.pdf
Halloween Party Games /
Activities
There are lots of lovely party game ideas at partygameideas.com
The American chocolate company Hersheys
has instructions and printables for games such as Pin the Wart on
the Witch and an easy Ghost Pinata to make.
Copyright www.hersheys.com
My family's favourite Halloween Party Game is the "Feely
Game".
It needs a small amount of preparation, but is
well worth the effort.
You need to prepare a number of items
and place them on a table either hidden inside shoe boxes (with a
hand hole cut in the side) or simply under separate tea
towels.
All the party guests stand outside the door and are
brought into the (darkened) room one-by-one to feel the items on the
table and guess what they could be.
The most effective items
are as follows:
2 hard boiled and shelled eggs (these will feel like eyeballs).
1 rubber glove (preferably the thin transparent kind) filled with
flour and secured at the arm end with a rubber band.
(This feels remarkably like a human hand, if you put enough flour
inside.)
1 old wig (feels horrible in the dark)
plate of cold cooked spaghetti
a piece of pumpkin cut into the shape of an ear
1 raw sausage (kids will obviously need to wash their hands after
this.)
There are lots of other things that you can do. If your
children are very small or squeamish, they'd probably rather just
feel random toys and household items (obviously not sharp
ones). However, the older children like to pretend they are
feeling
various body parts - especially as it's Halloween. The best
way to play this game is by encouraging the most hysterical guest to
play first. Their shrieks when they touch the various items
only adds to the tension felt by those waiting outside the
door!
Another good game for families is Nelson's Eye.
Only one person needs to be the "victim" here as everyone
else gets to watch. It is probably best to choose the
person
with the strongest stomach! The person who has been nominated
/ who's volunteered waits outside the door while the scene is
set. One person is going to be Nelson and another is the
story's narrator. The rest are simply the
audience.
The person who is going to be Nelson needs to be dressed
appropriately in a heavy jacket.
He needs to put only one arm into the jacket and have the other
sleeve hanging empty. A pirate patch is also a vital
prop.
Your last prop is a soft boiled egg with the top cut off.
The volunteer needs to be blind folded before coming into the
room. Stand the volunteer in front of "Nelson" and
tell them
that you are going to introduce them to Admiral Horatio
Nelson. Ask them to shake Nelson's left hand. Explain
that he cannot shake hands with his right hand because he lost that
arm in battle, then let the volunteer feel the empty sleeve.
Tell the volunteer how brave Nelson was and how he won the Battle of
Trafalgar in October 1805, directing the fighting from his famous
ship "The Victory". Tell how Nelson had not
only lost his arm, but also his right eye in another battle, then
let the volunteer feel the eye patch on Nelson's face. Explain
that he has to wear an eye patch to cover his lost eye because it is
so hideous. Now tell the audience that Nelson is going to show them
what his face looks like without the patch, but the volunteer must
not look.
(At which point all the other guests must scream horribly!)
Now tell the volunteer that although they can't see Nelson's missing
eye, you are going to let them feel it instead. At this point
you guide the volunteer's finger to the soft boiled egg and poke it
into it. You can probably see why it's best to ask an adult to
be the volunteer - we don't want anyone to be traumatised!
Visit the all new Winnie
the Witch website for all sorts of witch related
activities.
There is a free printable Winnie the Witch
colouring in sheet at: www.galaxy.bedfordshire.gov.uk and
a free dot-to-dot printable of Winnie's cat Wilbur at: www2.scholastic.co.uk and
a whole page of Winnie the Witch jokes at: www.oup.com/uk/minisites/
You can also find a lovely witch and cat poem
with a picture to colour in at:
www.scholastic.co.uk
There are instructions for an easy- to- make egg
carton spider at http://crafts.kaboose.com
Finally, the Hershey's website also has a Halloween
Word Search for ages 7+: www.hersheys.com/trickortreats/
Halloween Fancy Dress Ideas
Again the best site seems to be Familyfun,
with more Halloween Fancy Dress
ideas than you could ever imagine. Some are complicated
and require a bit of time, but some are very straightforward.
Kids Craft Weekly has lovely instructions for how to make a
pirate hat, parrot and a treasure chest. So if
your kids are pirate mad after watching
Johnny Depp strut his stuff, this should keep them
entertained.
Halloween trivia
You can find lots of
facts about Halloween here:
http://www.woodlands-junior.kent.sch.uk/customs/Halloween/facts.htm
Interestingly, the last fact is that if you want to
meet a witch on Hallowe'en night you must put your clothes on inside
out and walk backwards. In Scotland, the children go out
'guising' on Halloween night, which means they all put their clothes
on back to front - maybe this way they could look like they were
walking backwards, but without bumping into things!
How could you get through Halloween without a sneaky peek at the
Harry Potter official website?:
http://www.jkrowling.com/
Diwali - Festival of Lights
28 October
Diwali
celebrates the Hindu New Year. In preparation for this, people
spring clean their homes and open windows to let in Lakshmi, the
goddess of wealth. To light the goddess' way, little lamps are
lit all over the house. This is a real family party time, as
delicious food is prepared and fireworks are set off to ward off
evil spirits - a bit like our Halloween. On the last day of
Diwali, sisters cook for their brothers, who give them presents in
return.
It is also traditional to make beautiful Rangoli
patterns on the ground using coloured powders. You can see
some images of these here.
If you'd like to make some yourself dltk-kids.com
has easy printable templates for Rangoli
patterns.
There are instructions for making an Indian elephant,
a decorated slipper and a Diwali lamp pot
at Big
Eyed Owl There is a nice printable picture of the
goddess Lakshmi for the kids to colour here:
http://www.balagokulam.org/images/la-lakshmi.jpg
There is a really yummy Diwali pudding recipe at this BBC
webpage:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/database/bananaandsemolinashe_73018.shtml
National Children's Book
Week
From 6 October
This year's theme is Rhythm & Rhyme.
Under 14s can enter the Barefoot Books Young Storyteller
Competition by submitting a
video online of themselves telling their favourite story.
First prize is a weekend trip for
two to New York! The full details can be found on this Barefoot
Books page.
But hurry, you need to submit your video by 7 November.
(An exciting project for half term,
perhaps?)
These books have been shortlisted for the Roald Dahl Funny
Prize, in the age 7-14
category. Why not visit your library and try them all?
Mr Gum and the Dancing Bear by Andy Stanton
Paddington Here and Now by Michael Bond
Stop in the Name of Pants! by Louise Rennison
Cosmic by Frank Cottrell
Aliens Don't Eat Dog Food by Dinah Capparucci
Urgum and the Goo Goo Bah! by Kjartan Poskitt
To really celebrate the power of picture books you might want to
note that the British Library
(St Pancras, Euston Road, London) is hosting The Big Picture
Party from 11am - 4.30pm
on Monday 27 October (during half term). You're invited to
join authors and performers for
a FREE event including drawing, storytelling and workshops in the
Library's courtyard. Visit
the British
Library website for full details.
World Animal Day
Saturday 4 October
Your first port of call needs to be the World
Animal Day website
where you can access the Kids Zone for animal jokes
and loads of ideas. You can do
something kind things for your animals, such as making a toy mouse
for your cat, decorating
a new bowl for your dog, make a cake for garden birds or even a toy
aquarium for your bedroom.
If you click on this link Who
Came To Our Bird Table? you can download a chart for
recording all the birds who came to your garden in the week.
If you are unable to
identify all the birds, there is a wonderful children's guide to
garden birds at the Campaign
for Learning website. You can just print it off here
and keep it by the window for reference.
(After you've coloured in all the lovely pictures).
For an easy fun craft activity, you can visit the BBC's
Little Animals Activity Centre
and print off pages to cut out and make tiny finger
puppets of a mole, an owl, a hedgehog,
a mouse or a fox.
International Talk Like a Pirate Day.
Friday 19 September.
Just to make sure everyone knows it is a special day, you can download
this poster and
put it up in your front window: www.talklikeapirate.com/partykit
There is a pirate hat and eye patch to cut out here:
http://www.leehansen.com/printables
and there's a whole page of free pirate clip art to use as
you wish, on the same site:
http://www.leehansen.com/clipart/
There are lots of lovely pirate crafts including a
spyglass, a parrot and a pirate ship at dltk-kids:
www.dltk-kids.com/crafts/pirates
The Disney website FamilyFun has some great ideas for pirate
games or a pirate party:
http://familyfun.go.com/parties
The Family Fun site is especially useful as it has a section on "How
to talk like a pirate".
Roald Dahl Day
13 September
To celebrate Roald Dahl Day properly you must first visit the
official website: www.roalddahlday.info
Here you'll find an A4 party poster, stickers and bookplates to
download. The poster has lovely
suggestions for how to celebrate e.g. wear something yellow (this
was Dahl's favourite colour),
write a revolting rhyme, make up an Oopma Loompa Dance with your
friends or give someone
a treat (Dahl loved to give treats).
You can download party printables from the Treats section of the
website. These include:
birthday bunting, a characters quiz and enormous BFG ears.
Then get recipes for Mrs Twit's
Eyeball Cakes and a Hot Choc Sludge Drink. If you have any
energy left, you can also get printables
for making an enormous concertina crocodile or a roly-poly bird,
amongst others.
What a celebration!
If you still haven't had enough, you can visit the Roald Dahl
site: www.roalddahl.com
where there are book-themed online games and facts
about the great man himself.
If you can wait until November 2009 an animated film of "The
Fantastic Mr Fox" is due
to be released by (can you believe it?) Fox Animated
Studios. George Clooney is going
to supply the voice of Mr Fox, so you shouldn't have trouble
persuading mum to take
you to see it!
The Olympics
From 8 August
Mini Olympic
Games
Here are some printable pages for you to use as resources for your
own mini Olympic Games.
Olympic Torch
Click below for a torch image for you to print and cut
out.
Print the two pages of the image. In the second the image is
reversed (so that you can put the two
images back-to-back and have it on both sides).
If you print onto card, you can simply stick the two sides together
and it should be strong enough.
If you print onto paper, you might want to stick the two sides
together then slot the torch inside
an empty loo roll or kitchen roll tube.
Olympic
Torch 1
Olympic
Torch 2
Now you can put on some rousing music and race around holding
your torch aloft, to signal the
start of your Games!
Flags
To hold a proper Olympic Games, you would need to have lots of
different countries involved.
If you print out the following page and cut out all the little
flags, you can then either sellotape
them to the ends of pencils or slot them into a specially snipped
cut in the top of a drinking straw.
Then you could each choose a country and its flag for the
Games. If you like, you could print
out extra flags for friends, teddies and dolls to hold, so they can
wave them when you win.
Flags
of the world printable
Olympic Medals
It would be no fun to hold a mini Olympics without any
medals. Just print out the page below,
cut out each of the medals as neatly as you can, then colour them
in. The gold medal can be
yellow, the silver can be grey and the bronze can be brown.
Then ask mum if she has any safety
pins you can use to pin them on to the winners' t-shirts.
Olympic
Medals Printable
Mini Olympics Games events and Score Sheet
Now that you have all the accessories, you will need ideas about
events. It's easy to stage
lots of the events that are in the real Olympics, you just need a
tiny bit of preparation
and lots of imagination!
You can print off a score sheet for each athlete here:
Olympic Score Sheet
Here are some suggestions for how to stage each of the events:
Long Jump
- stand on a line or marker and, with both feet together jump
as far as you can. Ask someone
to measure (with a tape measure or ruler) how far you've jumped.
High Jump
- ask mum and dad or two friends to hold a skipping rope or piece of
string off the ground while
you jump over it. See how high they can lift it before you
have to stop. (If you're having trouble
jumping over it they can always drop it, so you don't get caught in
it).
Hop, Skip and Jump
- do just what it says! Hop once, skip once, then jump as far
as you can
Shot Put
- hold a bean bag, wet sponge (!), or ball up to the side of your
face then throw it as far as you can.
The wet sponge works best because it won't roll away (and it makes a
nice splat) but that's best done
outdoors.
Discus
- ask mum for some paper or plastic plates and spin them as far away
as you can. Measure how
far they away they land.
Javelin
- roll up some double pages of old newspaper very tightly diagonally
and then throw them like spears.
See how far you can make them go. You might need lots of
"javelins" because they only work once
before they get too bent.
Short and Long Running Races
- decide on two distances to run then time yourself and your friends
to see who can run the fastest.
If you have smaller brothers and sisters you might like to give them
shorter distances to run.
Relay
- this is just a race where teams take it in turns to run a certain
distance, one person at a time, and the
team that finishes first wins. You can run, then
"tag" the next person to show it's their turn to
run. If
you are in the garden, though, it's good fun to run with a bucket of
water, which you empty into a bigger
bucket when you get to your destination. You then bring the
bucket back for the next person to do the
same. The winning team is the one with the most water in their
big bucket at the end of a certain amount
of time.
Rowing
- this is a bit nutty, but it is possible to pull yourself forward
with your feet on the ground whilst sitting
on your bottom and pretending to row. Don't make the race a
very long one though because it's hard work!
Swimming
- this a bit like the rowing but you can cheat by saying you are
doing front crawl and crawl as fast as you can
to the winning post.
Basketball
- use a nice bouncy sort of ball and see how many times you can
bounce it with the palm of your hand
before it gets away.
Football
- set up a few obstacles, then take it in turns to dribble a ball
around them, timing each other to see who
is fastest.
St Swithin's Day
15 July
People used to say that if it rains on St Swithin's Day
it will rain for 40 days (that's almost
until the end of August). This legend has lasted for a
thousand years, ever since the bones
of St Swithins were moved to Winchester Cathedral in 971.
There was a huge storm then
and it lasted for 40 days. Let's hope it's a lovely day!
Just in case, you might want to paint
a smiley sun picture or colour a paper plate yellow and give it a
smiley face - to encourage the
sun to chase away the clouds.
Summer Solstice
20 June
The Summer Solstice (20 June) is the day when the sun is
at it's highest in the sky and it is
also the longest day of the year. We have 13 hours and 1
minute of sunlight on this day!
The word "solstice" comes from Latin and means "sun
stands still".
Every year, on this day, hundreds of people visit Stonehenge in
Wiltshire to see the sunrise
there. In prehistoric times men built a huge circle of stones
through which the sun casts a
mysterious beam. You can see how this works on this BBC
website:
news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/wiltshire
You can also download lots of archaeology
pages to learn from, colour in and play with from
the people who investigate the stones at Stonehenge:
www.wessexarch.co.uk/learning/resources
Midsummer's Day
24 June
In Britain people have always celebrated the summer sunshine on
Midsummer's Day, which
is 24 June. People would build bonfires and dance in a circle
around them, to celebrate
the wonderful light and warmth that the sun brings.
This was also believed to be a magical time when all the fairies
and pixies came out to play.
Shakespeare wrote a very famous play about this called "A
Midsummer Night's Dream".
CBeebies have a short animated version of the story here:
cbeebies/stories/dream.shtml
Even the early morning dew on Midsummer's Day was believed to be
magical. Young girls
would wash their faces with it to make themselves beautiful and old
people would wash with
it to make themselves look young.
If you would like to celebrate Midsummer, you could have a picnic
of traditional summer foods,
such as gooseberry fool, strawberries and raspberries. You
could even bake some little round
biscuits or cakes and decorate them with smiley sun faces.
Then you might like to either dress
up as fairies and pixies or hunt in your garden to see if you can
find any hiding there on this
special day. In the evening you could have a bonfire to dance
around, just like our ancestors did.
Father's Day
15 June
Here are some fun things to make (or even just
print out) to let dad know how much
you love him. Don't forget to be extra kind and well-behaved
on the day!
There's a really special Father's Day card to make on this
Canon
printers
website.
You simply need to print out all the instructions and components
first.
Little girls (and boys!) can print out a Best Dad Certificate from
agirlsworld.com
daniellesplace.com
and kaboose.com
have loads of craft activities and cards to make
for Father's Day. There is something here for everyone, from
really creative cards, to
pebble paperweights, a photo frame and pencil holder.
St George's Day
23 April
We've had Burn's Night and St Patrick's Day, so now it's time to
celebrate England!
England's patron saint is St George (he's the knight in shining
armour who killed the
wicked dragon). You can find out everything you need to know
about him at the
incredible Woodlands
Junior School site.
Although there should be celebrations all around the country on this
day, there are
actually only a few. One of the very best takes place in
Salisbury, Wiltshire, where a
truly massive inflatable dragon is slayed by St George in the city's
market square.
(The celebrations this year will be on Sunday 20 April - just in
case you are in the
vicinity!)
Copyright Salisbury District Council
If you don't want to stray too far from home Battle Abbey will be
staging a St George's Day
Children's Challenge on the weekend 26 & 27 April. See
the diary
for full details.
Springtime
For those of you who can't
wait until the May Bank Holiday Weekend to celebrate the
arrival
of Spring, I've found a whole page of inspirational ideas at Amazing
Moms. The lady who
wrote the article lives in America, but as she mentions the fact
that the snow has just cleared
and the sun is shining - she might as well be talking about
Eastbourne! There are ideas for
a proper Spring Party with friends or just a fun time in the garden
with your own kids.
Easter
21-24 March
Easter Egg Treasure Hunt Challenge.
To give the children a more challenging Easter Egg Hunt this year,
I've made up some printable pages
that form the basis of a simple Treasure Hunt.
The Easter Bunny has set your children a challenge. They must
find all the pieces of a jigsaw that he has
hidden about the house and when they have put them all together you
can tell them where the Easter
Bunny's has hidden their eggs. You will give your children
picture clues to help them find the pieces.
Click the link below for the picture of the Easter Bunny, divided
into 9 squares.
Print out the picture (preferably onto card) and cut it into 9
pieces, to form a simple jigsaw.
Put this to one side for the moment.
Bunny
Jigsaw
Now print out these pages of images of household objects. They
are divided into 4 squares each.
Print out each of these sheets and cut each into 4 pieces. You
now keep these to hand out as clues.
Easter
Clues 1
Easter Clues 2
Easter Clues 3
You will only need to hide the pieces of the bunny jigsaw in 9 of
the places shown on the Easter Clue
pictures, so choose the 9 pictures that best suit your home.
You can discard the other 3.
Now hide the jigsaw pieces in the places shown on your chosen clue
cards.
Now all you do is give your children the clues one and at time
and get them to bring back each of the
jigsaw pieces as they find them. Once they have all 9 pieces
and have put together the jigsaw -
they have completed the challenge! You can either tell the
children where the eggs or hidden,
or you could produce a note from the Easter Bunny himself, giving
their secret location.
External links
CBBC has a fun Easter Quiz to do online (it's not too
easy):
http://news.bbc.co.uk/cbbcnews/hi/quiz/newsid_2958000/2958847.stm
My favourite website at the moment is Meddybemps.com and they
have lovely colourful games,
short stories, printable Easter colouring sheets, quizzes and an
interactive Easter Egg Hunt. There is also
an illustrated short story to read on your computer about Frogwart
the naughty witch.
http://www.meddybemps.com/funandgames.html
There are some wonderful free Easter printables for your kids at the American Family Fun magazine website.
Choose from:
A caterpillar to make with lots of ideas for things to do in the
Springtime attached to his body:
http://a.familyfun.go.com/Resources/global/printables/0306_Activity_Bughead_Template.pdf
A cute Easter basket to make and keep all your tiny chocolate
eggs in:
http://a.familyfun.go.com/Resources/global/printables/0306_Easter_Basket_Template.pdf
Some Easter themed colour pictures to use when making your own
cards or just as decorations: | 
